In his first interview for the Romanian press in the last three years, Ion Tiriac says he does not intend to sell any stake in his business and that the most powerful economic crisis wave will hit in the autumn. The businessman hopes to be able to use the crisis to boost the market share of the businesses of Tiriac Holdings, though he admits the current economic troubles "cost him quite a lot" and "sadden him greatly. "

Businessman Ion Tiriac believes the most difficult moment of the crisis will come in the autumn of 2009, when banks will start asking for their money back from companies. "The real crisis will come in six months. Banks will come and demand their money from the average Joes who run a small business of their own. At which time all these average Joes will be left penniless, but banks will not do any better either, because they will no longer have any business to do." Tiriac admits banks might come asking for their money back from him, too. "If the bank demands its money back, I will tell it to take it from my cash account, but it doesn’t want it. The bank only wants money from those who don’t have it." The crisis and its effects will "pass in a few years", the businessman believes. Though he says he has enough cash, Tiriac admits the crisis saddens him "greatly, actually". "Work is being lost and that’s sad. It doesn’t scare me, though, because I am better prepared than others."

The crisis caught most people unprepared, the businessman believes, who congratulates himself that he prepared in good time and opened lines of credit to have access to money, and also saved something up. Otherwise, he would have had a really hard time, considering his fields of business. "Cars? Real estate? Nothing sells any more. Fortunately, I am not afraid, I saw the crisis coming and I have enough cash to swallow the pill; the crisis does cost me money, but I